Abstract
Aims and Objectives: This study investigates the effects of individual bilingualism and long-term language contact on monophthongal vowel productions in English and Welsh. Design: To this end, we recorded the Welsh and English vowel productions of two sets of Welsh-English bilinguals differing in home language use, as well as the English vowel productions of English monolinguals. Data and analysis: The data were analysed acoustically, with a focus on spectral and temporal properties. Comparisons were then made within each language and cross-linguistically. Findings: The results of a cross-linguistic acoustic comparison revealed a high degree of convergence in the monophthong systems of Welsh and English, but also some language-specific categories. Interestingly, at the individual level we found no effect of linguistic experience on vowel production: the two sets of bilinguals and the English monolinguals did not differ in their realisation of English vowels, and the two sets of bilinguals did not differ in their realisation of Welsh vowels. Originality: This is one of few studies to examine the effect of linguistic background on variation in Welsh and English bilingual speech, and the first to compare the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals and English monolinguals. More specifically, it investigates the extent to which a speaker’s home language can affect phonetic variation in a close-knit community of speakers and in a situation characterised by long-term language contact. Implications: The findings demonstrate pervasive phonetic convergence in a language contact situation with a historical substrate. They also indicate that a homogeneous peer group with shared values can override the effects of individual linguistic experience. Keywords vowel productions; acoustic analysis; language contact; phonetic convergence; linguistic experience; Welsh-English bilingualism
Highlights
Research has shown that bilinguals have separate, but non-autonomous systems, exhibiting cross-linguistic interactions (Mennen, 2004; Paradis, 2001)
We seek to answer these questions on the basis of a systematic acoustic analysis of the vowels produced by three groups of adolescent males from a bilingual school in West Wales: (1) Welsh-English bilinguals from Welsh-speaking homes, (2) Welsh-English bilinguals from English-speaking homes and (3) English monolinguals
The bilingual participants‟ realisations of the Welsh vowels will be discussed. The purpose of these analyses was to determine the effects of individual linguistic experience on vowel production
Summary
Research has shown that bilinguals have separate, but non-autonomous systems, exhibiting cross-linguistic interactions (Mennen, 2004; Paradis, 2001) In bilingual communities, such interactions may give rise to systemic convergence, resulting in the emergence of contact varieties (Bullock & Gerfen, 2004; Heselwood & McChrystal, 1999). While the English accents of the largely monolingual areas in South-East Wales are well documented (Collins & Mees, 1990; Mees & Collins, 1999; Mayr, 2010; Walters, 1999, 2001), little is known about the varieties of English spoken in bilingual areas and their relation to local varieties of Welsh Are they characterised by extensive Welsh-language influence? Colantoni and Gurlekian (2004) found that the intonation patterns of Buenos Aires Spanish differed from those of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world as a result of mass inward migration from Italy at the turn of the twentieth century
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